The purpose of this article is to stimulate discussion and research about patient suffering and caregiver compassion. It is our view that these constructs are central to understanding phenomena such as family caregiving, and that recognizing their unique role in the caregiving experience provides new directions for intervention research, clinical…

Purpose: This research applies a stress and support conceptual model to investigate the effects of background characteristics, personal and job-related stressors, and workplace support on direct care workers' (DCW) job satisfaction. Design and Methods: Researchers collected survey data from 644 DCWs in 49 long-term care (LTC) organizations. The…

Background: Nursing aides' attitudes condoning elder abuse are a possible risk factor for executing abusive behaviors against elder residents of long-term care facilities but have been studied infrequently. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess nursing aides' attitudes that condone abusive behaviors toward elderly people, as well as the…

Purpose: There is a growing consensus that quality of care for frail elders should include family and be evaluated in terms of patient-centered, family-focused care (PCFFC). Family caregivers are in a unique and sometimes sole position to evaluate such care. In the context of caring for physically frail elders, this study examined the extent to…

Purpose: In an attempt to more thoroughly describe aggressive behavior in nursing home residents with dementia, we examined background and proximal factors as guided by the Need-Driven Dementia-Compromised Behavior model. Design and Methods: We used a multivariate cross-sectional survey with repeated measures; participants resided in nine randomly…

Purpose: We adopted a feminist, structural approach to husbands' experiences of caring for wives with Alzheimer's disease. This framework posited that men and women draw upon gender repertoires--situational ideals of behavior based upon their respective structural locations--that create gendered experiences of stress and coping strategies. Design…

Purpose: Longitudinal research in dementia has acknowledged the importance of transitions during the course of family caregiving. However, long-term adaptation to institutionalization has received little attention. This study attempts to describe caregivers' adaptation (changes in stress, well-being, and psychosocial resources) to placement up to…

Purpose: Using a conceptual framework from the field of care work and the theory of boundary work, we explore the use of family metaphors by nurse's aides to describe their affective care for nursing home residents. We focus on how nurse's aides can express affective care in spite of experiencing racial abuse. Methods: Using the technique of…

Purpose: This study identifies the relative importance of reasons for institutionalization endorsed by caregivers of patients with dementia; examines the relationship between caregivers' reasons for institutionalization and indicators of caregiver and patient physical and emotional functioning measured in the prior year; and compares, on these…

Assesses overall quality of life of caregivers, using a path model in which burden was conceptualized as distinct from well-being. Findings revealed that perceived social support is strongly related to well-being but unrelated to burden, reinforcing the conceptual distinctiveness of the two concepts. Suggests that quality of life of caregivers…

Purpose: Although persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) require increasingly more assistance with activities of daily living as their disease progresses, the caregiving environment has received little attention as a source of predictors of their survival time. We report here on a study to determine whether variation in survival time of persons…

Analyzes caregiver burden in relation to Alzheimer patients' awareness of their own deficits. Results suggest that caregiver burden was associated with impaired patient awareness of memory deficit independent of disease stage and dementia severity, suggesting that impaired awareness may be an important mediator of caregiver burden. (RJM)

Uses an existentialist perspective to examine the current empirical stress/adaptation model that guides caregiving of persons with dementia. Compares and contrasts key elements, strengths, and limitations of each model and isolates areas of convergence/divergence in both perspectives. Identifies implications for future theory development,…

Purpose: This study examined attitudes of caregivers and physicians toward assessing and diagnosing dementia, with an emphasis on how a diagnosis is disclosed. Design and Methods: Seventeen focus group interviews were conducted with caregivers or physicians from three sites; 52 caregivers participated in nine interviews (three each at the three…

Used data from 252 female primary caregivers, their husbands, and children to create family typologies based on the extent of similarities among reports of elder behaviors. Results indicate that families characterized by high agreement and those characterized by low agreement significantly differed from one another. Other findings are reported.…